Reflections, commentaries, critiques and ideas from 40 years experience in the fields of Community Development, Community Education and Social Justice. Useful tools and techniques that I have learnt also added occassionally.

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The name of this blog, Rainbow Juice, is intentional.The rainbow signifies unity from diversity. It is holistic. The arch suggests the idea of looking at the over-arching concepts: the big picture. To create a rainbow requires air, fire (the sun) and water (raindrops) and us to see it from the earth.Juice suggests an extract; hence rainbow juice is extracting the elements from the rainbow, translating them and making them accessible to us. Juice also refreshes us and here it symbolises our nutritional quest for understanding, compassion and enlightenment.

Monday, 17 October 2016

Creating Creativity (Part 1 of 2)

Albert Einstein is credited with one of the most oft quoted sayings in the
world. I will quote it again here, although it appears that Einstein didn’t actually
use the words the way they are quoted:1

“We can’t solve problems using the same thinking we used when we created
them”

These words have become more and more critical as the years and decades have
passed. The telegram from which they have been abstracted was sent seventy
years ago at the height of nuclear tensions. We still live with the threat of
nuclear terror. Additionally we face new issues, problems and concerns:
environmental degradation, rising inequality, terrorism, refugee crises, climate
change, rapid urbanisation to name but a few. What is more is that all these
are interconnected and the world is becoming increasingly complex.

We are still using the same thinking that Einstein and the others of his
committee referred to in 1946.

We must think differently. We must think creatively.

Perhaps enabling citizens and communities to recognise their collective
creativity is one of the most fundamental tasks that a community worker can
undertake. If we critically appraise the roles that our world leaders take on
we must conclude that acting creatively is not one of them. It is up to us.
The creative opportunities arise from the bottom, not from the top. Creative
opportunities can be found on the margins, not from central decree.

Those working from an empowerment model, or a strengths based model can help
to create creativity. We can help people see the blocks to their own creativity
and we can offer tools and techniques to help strengthen the creativity that is
already there. This blog piece (Part 1) will address a couple of the common
creativity blocks and hindrances. Next week, Part 2, will look at some tools
and techniques for fostering creativity.

Left Brain – Right Brain Myth
One of the biggest blocks to creativity is the belief that creativity applies
only to artists, musicians, potters, writers, dancers, actors or other such
people. We all have creative potential. The notion of the left brain-right
brain duality has sadly contributed to this cultural myth. And it is just that
– a myth. Our brains are actually a lot more complex than
the simple dualism of right brain – left brain that much of popular psychology
has led us to believe.Indeed,
activities like creativity (and rationality for that matter) are more
whole-brain activities.

In the 1960s scientists cut the structure (corpus callosum) that connects the
left and right brains of epilepsy sufferers in an attempt to cure them. They
then looked at what sides of the brain were involved in language, maths, drawing
etc., and found that one side was more likely to be involved in some functions
than the other. Popular psychology took this to mean that we are all either
left brain dominant or right brain dominant. But this failed to recognise that
the experiments were with unconnected brain hemisphere, and
neuroscientists have never held to the left-right brain myth. In 2013
researchers at the University of Utah studied the connected brains of
more than 1,000 people and found that,2

"It is not the case that the left hemisphere is associated with logic or
reasoning more than the right, (and that) creativity is no more processed in the
right hemisphere than the left."

Our culture, unfortunately, would rather we considered ourselves as consumers
or producers, rather than as creators. The first step towards taking back our
creative power is to break down the myths and stereotypes.

Fear of Failure
A further hindrance in our creativity is our fear of failure. In fact, fear
of failure has it’s own word – atichyphobia. Symptoms of atichyphobia can
include; a reluctance to try anything new, anxiety, a low sense of worth, or
perfectionism (whereby we are willing to do only those things that we know we
can succeed at). But we know from a number of historical episodes that failure
can often lead to great success. Here are just two such cases:

Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, reputedly tried 1,000
different filaments for his light bulb, none of which worked. The story goes
that a journalist queried him on this and asked why he didn’t give up after
1,000 failures. Edison famously replied “I haven’t failed 1,000 times, I’ve just
proven 1,000 ways in which it doesn’t work.”

Michael Jordan is credited with being the greatest basketballers to have ever
lived. Here is what he had to say about failure and success:

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300
games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and
I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why
I succeed.”

When it comes to collective creativity there are some further blocks that get
placed in the way, amongst them:

A desire to conform to group norms. If group members prize harmony over
encouraging their fellows to offer differing opinions, then creativity can be
hard to come by.

Some groups may have no history or experience with working together and so a
collaborative approach becomes difficult to achieve. It may be that members are
used to a competitive culture and so will be suspicious of a more cooperative
style.

If the working patterns amongst members is one of making judgments, being
critical or constant evaluation, then the openness and transparency required for
creativity will be elusive.

Some group members are more inclined towards the introversion end of the
spectrum and so if those of an extroverted persuasion become more dominant in
the group, then those who are more introspective or tentative about sharing
their views will tend to switch off and not offer their ideas or
insights.

Next weeks blog piece will look at some of the tools and techniques for
fostering our creativity.

Notes:1.Einstein was the Chairman of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists
who sent a telegram to hundreds of prominent Americans in May 1946, in which the
following phrase was used: “…a new type of thinking is essential if mankind
is to survive and move toward higher levels.” This telegram came in the wake
of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and at a time of
heightened nuclear tensions. Somehow that extract from the telegram came to be
attributed to Einstein himself and re-formatted to the quotation about not being
able to solve problems with the same thinking that created them. Certainly,
when Einstein was interviewed a few months later he reiterated the quote from
the telegram and said to the interviewer (Michael Amrine) “We must abandon
competition and secure cooperation.”

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About Me

I have almost 40 years experience working (paid and unpaid, government and non-government) in community development/education and social justice fields. I have continued to keep myself abreast of philosophies and theories in these and related fields. This blogsite will offer ideas, thoughts, reflections on these fields as well as giving some tools and techniques. I don't pretend that these will be original but I do hope that they will be able to translate some of these diverse ideas into coherent forms accessible to workers in the areas.